Gaslamp chalk art promotes Comic-Con cosplay!

I spotted some cool chalk art this morning as I walked through San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter. Star Wars characters and a Ghostbusters graphic had been created in front of the Blarney Stone Pub on Fifth Avenue.

It appears the chalk art promotes a Star Wars/Mandalorian cosplay contest at 9 pm on Friday, during Comic-Con Special Edition. I’m not sure if it will be held here or elsewhere.

I took these photos of the artwork…

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

San Diego readies for Peacemaker and The Freak Brothers!

Comic-Con Special Edition, during this Thanksgiving weekend, will be featuring a few cool offsite activations in and around San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter. They are free and open to the public.

I walked along Martin Luther King, Jr. Promenade this morning and saw a big new Peacemaker display and workers readying an offsite that promotes Tubi’s new show The Freak Brothers. (UPDATEpossibly The Freak Brothers! It might actually be the Peacemaker Proving Ground. We’ll have to see Friday!)

NBC will also be promoting La Brea in Gaslamp Square next to the Tin Fish, across from the San Diego Convention Center. I took updated photos of that offsite yesterday, which you can see here.

A security guard told me a homeless person tried to rip off the plastic wrapping, breaking the Peacemaker sign below.

Here’s a photo of the big Peacemaker building wrap on the Marriott Marquis. Peacemaker is a show about the DC Comics character, who appeared in the latest Suicide Squad movie. The new series will be on HBO Max.

Here come more pics from this Thanksgiving morning. It looks like (maybe) The Freak Brothers will be living in a trailer. The animated Tubi show satirizes both the drug counter-culture and the establishment. It’s based on an underground comic about stoner characters and their crazy exploits.

The Garden of Peace sign makes me wonder if this isn’t actually the Peacemaker Proving Ground, referenced here. We’ll find out!

UPDATE!

Turns out I was wrong! What I thought might be The Freak Brothers activation is actually the Peacemaker Proving Ground. That would explain the obstacle course I photographed earlier.

A bus promoting The Freak Brothers will be parked by the Hilton San Diego Bayfront!

I’ll have to check that out this weekend!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

Getting ready for Comic-Con Special Edition!

Preparations are now underway in downtown San Diego for this Thanksgiving weekend’s big Comic-Con Special Edition!

I walked around the Gaslamp Quarter this morning and spotted a building wrap on the Marriott Marquis. In the evening, after dark, I saw workers setting up a couple of Comic-Con offsites!

One offsite, by the Tin Fish, promotes NBC’s television show La Brea. The premise, I learned, is a sinkhole opens up in Los Angeles, swallowing modern people and depositing them in a mysterious subterranean world–where their smartphones don’t work! What will they do when they encounter dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures? The La Brea offsite will be giving away premium swag to all visitors!

The other offsite I spotted is on some grass by Martin Luther King, Jr. Promenade, where Deadquarters has been located the last couple Comic-Cons. Workers were setting up an obstacle course. One person I spoke to thinks this offsite promotes a show on Tubi. Possibly The Freak Brothers. I’ll be providing updates with more photos and info. Stay tuned!

Comic-Con Special Edition banner at one end of the San Diego Convention Center.
These workers confided they’re getting stuff ready for the big pop culture event!
More banners on the convention center along Harbor Drive.
Comic-Con International banners on posts by the convention center. Celebrating the popular arts.
A Peacemaker building wrap on the Marriott Marquis. The television series concerning a DC Comics character will be on streaming service HBO Max.
Setting up an offsite in the dark. The workers didn’t know what it was–except it’s for Comic-Con.
Part of the same offsite, which includes an obstacle course. Someone surmised it promotes a show on Tubi.
The NBC La Brea offsite by the Tin Fish.
Looks like mammoth tusks! Visitors will walk through here to an ambulance where cool swag will be obtained!
Looks like Syfy will also be represented outside Comic-Con Special Edition!
La Brea ads are all over the place.
Stay tuned for more pics later this week!

UPDATE!

I walked all around the Gaslamp and convention center early Wednesday morning. This is what I saw…

First, some large banners have been on the Hilton San Diego Bayfront’s parking structure for a few weeks now. They promote local rapidly growing tech company ClickUp, which is headquartered in the Gaslamp!

Next, I took a pic of exhibitors lined up behind the convention center, waiting to unload trucks.

I took some pics of construction of what I think might be The Freak Brothers offsite near the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter. (UPDATE! Now I’m thinking this might be the Peacemaker Proving Ground–we’ll see on Friday!)

And finally some daylight pics of the La Brea activation.

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

Comic-Con week cosplay parade in the Gaslamp!

In 2021 lovers of San Diego Comic-Con are enjoying an online experience of the international pop culture convention at home. But that hasn’t stopped fans in San Diego from having fun in the Gaslamp Quarter!

This afternoon I took a bunch of photographs of cosplay at the San Diego Causeplayer Community Shrine by the Tin Fish Restaurant.

At one o’clock the cosplayers started up Fifth Avenue in a big parade! Diners along the street and those watching from the sidewalk were in for a treat!

I followed the parade as superheroes and supervillains passed a simulated torch from one to the other. The costumed characters finally gathered at the parade’s end for an amazing group photo!

Check it out!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

Friday morning at SDCC Causeplayer Community Shrine!

The San Diego Causeplayer Community Shrine is kicking off in the Gaslamp Quarter by the Tin Fish restaurant this morning. What was referred to in 2020 as the Comic-Con Shrine has grown for 2021 into a full-fledged event!

Today through the weekend, the Causeplayer Community Shrine will feature chalk art, cosplay (including afternoon parades up Fifth Avenue), 91X FM dance parties, and, most importantly, a big blood drive by the San Diego Blood Bank! Everyone is invited to swing by and add their own words and Comic-Con memories to the shrine, this second year that San Diego Comic-Con was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

I captured these photos this morning as I walked by the shrine!

The SDCC Causeplayer Community Shrine has many memories from past San Diego Comic-Cons.
It’s Dude Vader and Lightning McQueen!
Dude Vader chalk art.
I met my girlfriend at SDCC.
Look at all the Funkos!
Free Funko for every blood donor!
Thor holds up her hammer at the 2021 Causeplayer Community Shrine!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

Cool photo memories from July 2016.

Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game AND Comic-Con! Both spectacular events took place in San Diego five years ago, back in July 2016!

That might have been the most exciting month ever for Cool San Diego Sights!

Five years ago I took hundreds of photographs outside both the MLB All-Star Game and San Diego Comic-Con, and I managed to check out some other cool stuff, too!

If you’d like to go back to revisit the excitement, follow the upcoming links. They’ll take you to some of the fun blogs that I posted.

Click the following links to see many photographs!

Cool photos: OB Pier celebrates 50th anniversary!

Fun photos: Old Town San Diego’s Fourth of July!

Kids have fun at All-Star Game’s PLAY BALL PARK!

Cool exhibit: Baseball and comic books combined!

A cool, rarely seen mural in downtown San Diego!

Fun photos of MLB All-Star Game’s Red Carpet Parade!

Threads of the Past: Living history in Old Town.

Photos outside Comic-Con. Everyone is getting ready!

Cool cosplay and crazy fun outside Comic-Con!

Photographs of cosplay at San Diego Comic-Con!

Wonder Woman mural being painted during Comic-Con!

Zombies gather in park, prepare to attack city.

More photos of super creative cosplay at Comic-Con!

Cool busts of FX characters outside Comic-Con.

Tiny surfing dogs ride big waves at Imperial Beach!

This blog now features thousands of photos around San Diego! Are you curious? There’s lots of cool stuff to check out!

Here’s the Cool San Diego Sights main page, where you can read the most current blog posts.  If you’re using a phone or small mobile device, click those three parallel lines up at the top–that opens up my website’s sidebar, where you’ll see the most popular posts, a search box, and more!

To enjoy future posts, you can also “like” Cool San Diego Sights on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

Cosplay banners for Causeplayer Community Shrine!

Cosplay banners have been hung all over the Gaslamp Quarter in anticipation of the upcoming San Diego Causeplayer Community Shrine. The event will be held July 23-25!

What has been referred to as the Comic-Con Shrine has recently been given a new name. The San Diego Causeplayer Community Shrine (in Gaslamp Square near the Tin Fish restaurant across from the Convention Center) will be the site of a blood drive by the San Diego Blood Bank, not to mention fan chalk art, dance parties and lots of cosplay activity!

These banners up and down Fifth Avenue feature members of the Science Fiction Coalition and various other cosplay groups from around San Diego.

Look at all these very cool banners!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

Comic-Con Shrine returning for 2021!

The San Diego Comic-Con Shrine is returning for 2021!

Just like last year, when Comic-Con was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a fun, free, semi-spontaneous, fan-centric celebration of the popular arts will be taking place during Comic-Con week just outside the Tin Fish restaurant. You know, in Gaslamp Square, the public plaza across from the convention center, next to the trolley station. There will be cosplay, chalk art, a blood drive . . . even nightly dance parties!

I saw a couple of banners at the Tin Fish this morning and took the next photo. It looks like Dude Vader and the Science Fiction Coalition will once again be a big part of the Shrine experience.

While San Diego Comic-Con was cancelled again for health reasons in 2021, a Special Edition of Comic-Con will be coming to the convention center this November.

If you live in San Diego, make sure to check out the Comic-Con Shrine this summer from July 23-25. I see they have a website here!

Meanwhile, enjoy a sample of the photographs that I took last year at and near the Shrine…

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

Clowns spotted all around San Diego!

During my walk around San Ysidro yesterday I spotted some fun new street art on a utility box. The colorful clowns were painted by local artist Gerardo Meza. His works of imagination are encountered almost everywhere you go in San Ysidro.

After taking the above photo, it occurred to me I’ve probably collected a bunch of clown images over the years. So I searched Cool San Diego Sights and found the following photographs!

Some of the clowns are happy, some are silly, some are creepy. Many were seen during parades. I’ve also spotted various clown characters during Comic-Con, including Pennywise and Baskets. Other clowns appear in public artwork.

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

Star Wars photos for May the Fourth!

May the Fourth be with you this fine Tuesday!

For your enjoyment, I’ve assembled a bunch of fun Star Wars photos that I’ve taken over many years of blogging in San Diego.

You’ll see cosplay and street art. You’ll see cool Star Wars figures, fan art and funny advertisements. Most of these photos are from past Comic-Cons.

To see even more Star Wars stuff on Cool San Diego Sights, perform a search on my blog’s sidebar or click a tag.

Enjoy!

This blog now features thousands of photos around San Diego! Are you curious? There’s lots of cool stuff to check out!

Here’s the Cool San Diego Sights main page, where you can read the most current blog posts.  If you’re using a phone or small mobile device, click those three parallel lines up at the top–that opens up my website’s sidebar, where you’ll see the most popular posts, a search box, and more!

To enjoy future posts, you can also “like” Cool San Diego Sights on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.